URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa10110.pdf
Note: Please write on behalf of these persons even though you may not have received the original UA when issued on April 29, 2010. Thanks!
30 April 2010
Further information on UA 101/10 (29 April 2010) - Fear for safety/Disappearance
MEXICO
David Cilia (m), journalist
Erika Ramirez (f), journalist
Fernando Santiago (m), member of Mexican organization Brigadas Indigenas
David Venegas (m), member of Oaxacan group VOCAL
Noe Bautista (m), member of Oaxacan group VOCAL
Other human rights defenders in Oaxaca
Two journalists and three human rights activists, missing after an attack on human rights observers in Oaxaca State, Mexico, were found on 29 April. However, the authorities have not done enough to investigate the attack.
Journalists David Cilia and Erika Ramirez, and activists Fernando Santiago (a member of Mexican organization Brigadas Indigenas), David Venegas and Noe Bautista (members of Oaxacan group VOCAL) had fled when armed men opened fire on an international caravan of human rights observers in the Indigenous Triqui area of Oaxaca state, southern Mexico, on 27 April. Fearing for their lives, they spent almost two days in woodland (monte) close to the scene of the ambush, awaiting rescue.
David Cilia, Erika Ramirez (the only woman among the five), David Venegas and Noe Bautista hid together in a ravine, following the attack, which left two human rights defenders dead. Thinking they should be rescued, they stayed there for almost two days, before David Venegas and Noe Bautista decided to seek help. They walked for about eight hours before reaching the town of Juxtlahuaca, where they managed to pass on information about the whereabouts of the other two. That evening, a rescue party including police, David Cilia's father and the editor of the magazine David Cilia and Erika Ramirez work for, found the journalists. Both journalists are receiving hospital treatment. According to sources in Oaxaca, Noe Bautista has a minor injury and the other two activists are unharmed after their ordeal. Fernando Santiago, who had been hiding by himself, found his own way to safety a few hours before the others.
Human rights groups in Mexico believe that the attack was planned by an irregular armed that operates in the area. Following the attack, federal and state authorities did not go to the scene of the ambush until the day after the attack, claiming this was due to security concerns. Apparently, evidence has not been gathered by the investigators at the scene of the incident. Those affected by the attacked are yet to receive protection by the authorities
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On 27 April a group of about 30 human rights observers was ambushed by armed men in the Indigenous Triqui area of Oaxaca state. The observers were attacked after they were forced to stop their journey because rocks were blocking the road. One man, observer Jyri Antero Jaakola from Finland, and one woman, Indigenous human rights defender Beatriz Carino (head of the organization CACTUS in Oaxaca state) were killed, some others were injured
The group was on its way to document long-running human rights abuses in the Indigenous Triqui area, and to provide some humanitarian assistance. The victims of the attack included several members of Mexican organizations and networks, and international observers from Finland, Germany, Italy and Belgium.
Human rights defenders in Mexico face serious and constant human rights abuses. Those working to redress the historical neglect of economic, social and cultural rights are at heightened risk of abuse, and, therefore, are most in need of recognition, protection and support. Among them, the situation of Indigenous human rights defenders is of particular concern. Those leading efforts to break the cycle of exclusion, inequality, poverty and other human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples are paying a high price.
The mainly Indigenous Triqui region is one of the poorest and most troubled in the country. For more than 30 years it has been driven by inter-community conflict in which scores of people have been killed. The state and federal authorities have rarely taken action to hold those responsible to account.
In 2008 Felicitas Martinez and Teresa Bautista, two young Indigenous human rights defenders and journalists were killed. No one has been brought to justice for this crime. Both were colleagues of Beatriz Carino who was killed in the ambush this Tuesday 27 April.
The State of Oaxaca has been ridden with human rights violations for decades. In the last few years widespread protests erupted in a campaign to force the state governor to resign. In 2006 amidst these protests at least 18 civilians were killed and hundreds were injured and arrested. Use of excessive force, arbitrary detention, torture and fabrication of criminal charges against protesters by the security and judicial authorities was widespread.
In 2009, a special investigation by Mexico's Supreme Court concluded that senior state officials should be held accountable for human rights violations committed during the crisis. However, virtually no-one has been held to account for these grave human rights violations.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- calling on the federal authorities to investigate the attack on the human rights observers, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice;
- urging the federal authorities to ensure that those at risk are protected in accordance with their wishes;
- calling on the authorities to publicly condemn the attack and reinforce its commitment to the protection of human rights defenders in Mexico with prompt and effective action.
APPEALS TO:
President
Lic. Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa
Residencia Oficial de "Los Pinos", Casa Miguel Aleman
Col. San Miguel Chapultepec
Mexico D.F., C.P. 11850, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 55 50 93 53 21
E-mail: felipe.calderon@presidencia.gob.mx
Salutation: Senor Presidente / Dear President Calderon
Attorney General of the Republic
Lic. Arturo Chavez Chavez
Procuraduria General de la Republica
Av. Paseo de la Reforma no 211-213
Col. Cuauhtemoc, Delegacion Cuauhtemoc
Mexico D.F., C.P. 06500, MEXICO
Fax: 011 52 55 53 46 09 08
Email: ofproc@pgr.gob.mx
Salutation: Senor Procurador General / Dear Attorney General
COPIES TO:
NGO
Centro de Apoyo Comunitario Trabajando Unidos - CACTUS
Jazmin 31, Fraccionamiento Jardines del Sur
Huajuapan de Leon, Oax. C.P. 69007
MEXICO
Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana
Embassy of Mexico
1911 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington DC 20006
Fax: 1 202 728 1698
Email: mexembusa@sre.gob.mx
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 11 June 2010.
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
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Fax: 202.675.8566
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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Friday, April 30, 2010
Urgent Action 4-30-10
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa09410.pdf
Note: Please write on behalf of these persons even though you may not have received the original UA when issued on April 26, 2010. Thanks!
30 April 2010
Further information on UA 94/10 (26 April 2010) - Fear for safety
HONDURAS
Journalists, including:
Ricardo Oviedo Reyes (m)
Jorge Otts Andersen (m)
new name: Gerardo Chevez (m)
A Honduran journalist who received a death threat on 21 April has been followed by two men on a motorbike. Shots have also been fired outside his home. Another journalist has also told Amnesty International of death threats he has received in recent weeks.
On the morning of 28 April, Ricardo Oviedo, a television journalist and President of the Association of Media workers of Colon (Asociacion de Comunicadores de Colon) in northeastern Honduras, was followed as he drove from the office where he had attended a meeting by two men on a yellow motorbike without number plates. The same men have previously followed him home and have been seen circling around the area outside his house on a motorbike. Ricardo Oviedo was so alarmed that he stopped his motorbike and sought shelter in the office of an NGO, instead of continuing his journey. During the previous evening, shots were fired outside Ricardo Oviedo's home. He had received a death threat on 21 April (see previous UA).
Amnesty International has just received news of threats against another journalist. On 14 April, Gerardo Chevez, a reporter for radio station Radio Progreso, based in El Progreso municipality, northern Honduras, received a threat via text message (SMS). The threat referred to the killing the previous day of radio journalist Luis Antonio Chevez Hernandez in the northern city of San Pedro Sula. It read "We're finishing off the Chevezes. Next we're going to start with the priests" ("Estamos acabando con los Chevez. Luego vamos con los curas"). Gerardo Chevez is not related to Luis Antonio Chevez Hernandez, but shares the same family name. The director of Radio Progreso is a Jesuit priest, Padre Ismael Moreno. Gerardo Chevez had previously received a text message death threat on 29 March, which read: "Ha ha ha we're fucking up the journalists who talk shit like you" ("ja ja ja le estamos quebrando el culo a los periodistas a la mierda como vos"). Gerardo Chevez has recently reported on events organized by the opposition Resistance movement, and also on alleged local corruption.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On 1 March, Joseph Hernandez Ochoa, a 26-year-old student and journalist was shot dead in Tegucigalpa. He was the first victim in the recent spate of killings of journalists. His colleague, journalist Carol Cabrera, was injured in the same attack. On 11 March, radio journalist David Meza Montesinos was killed by unidentified assailants who had followed his car and shot him as he drove home. He had been investigating the issue of drug trafficking and had received threats by phone for several weeks. Three days later, Nahum Palacios, news director for TV station Channel 5, was murdered while driving through the city of Tocoa, Colon department. He had investigated a land dispute in the Aguan region and had also reported on drug trafficking. On 24 July 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had requested that Honduras immediately take steps to protect him, but the authorities took no action. Victor Manuel Juarez and Jose Bayardo Mairena both worked for the news program Asi es Olancho (This is Olancho) in Olancho department, eastern Honduras. They were shot from another vehicle on 27 March as they drove along a road in Olancho.
Following the coup d'etat on 28 June 2009 there were closures and occupation of media outlets by military personnel, the beating and physical attack of journalists, and journalists, particularly those investigating organized criminal activity, human rights violations or speaking out about the coup d'etat, have been subjected to threats and intimidation. Amnesty International documented violations during the coup d'etat in a report released on 27 January 2010 titled "Honduras: Recommendations to the new Honduran government following the coup of June 2009".
A new government led by Porfirio Lobo took office on 27 January 2010. Now, with six killings of journalists in just two months, the government must take urgent and immediate action to protect journalists receiving threats, prevent further deaths and investigate and bring to justice the culprits of these murders.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- publicly condemn killings and intimidation of journalists and make a commitment to protect journalists;
- act immediately to provide all necessary protection to Ricardo Oviedo and Gerardo Chevez and other journalists under threat, in accordance with their wishes;
- carry out an urgent, thorough and impartial investigation into the killings of the six journalists and the threats made against other journalists, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice;
- implement all of the orders for protection from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
APPEALS TO:
President
Sr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa
Presidente de la Republica
Casa Presidencial
Boulevard Juan Pablo Segundo
Palacio Jose Cecilio del Valle
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 232 1666
Salutation: Dear President
Attorney General
Sr. Luis Alberto Rubi
Fiscal General de la Republica
Lomas del Guijarro, Avenida Republica Dominicana
Edificio Lomas Plaza II
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 221 5667
Salutation: Dear Attorney General
COPIES TO:
NGO
Comite de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)
Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301
Apartado Postal 1243
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 220 5280 (say "tono de fax")
Ambassador Roberto Flores Bermudez
Embassy of Honduras
3007 Tilden St. NW Suite 4M
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 966 9751
Email: lprado@hondurasemb.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 11 June 2010.
----------------------------------
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Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement
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This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
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Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
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Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa09410.pdf
Note: Please write on behalf of these persons even though you may not have received the original UA when issued on April 26, 2010. Thanks!
30 April 2010
Further information on UA 94/10 (26 April 2010) - Fear for safety
HONDURAS
Journalists, including:
Ricardo Oviedo Reyes (m)
Jorge Otts Andersen (m)
new name: Gerardo Chevez (m)
A Honduran journalist who received a death threat on 21 April has been followed by two men on a motorbike. Shots have also been fired outside his home. Another journalist has also told Amnesty International of death threats he has received in recent weeks.
On the morning of 28 April, Ricardo Oviedo, a television journalist and President of the Association of Media workers of Colon (Asociacion de Comunicadores de Colon) in northeastern Honduras, was followed as he drove from the office where he had attended a meeting by two men on a yellow motorbike without number plates. The same men have previously followed him home and have been seen circling around the area outside his house on a motorbike. Ricardo Oviedo was so alarmed that he stopped his motorbike and sought shelter in the office of an NGO, instead of continuing his journey. During the previous evening, shots were fired outside Ricardo Oviedo's home. He had received a death threat on 21 April (see previous UA).
Amnesty International has just received news of threats against another journalist. On 14 April, Gerardo Chevez, a reporter for radio station Radio Progreso, based in El Progreso municipality, northern Honduras, received a threat via text message (SMS). The threat referred to the killing the previous day of radio journalist Luis Antonio Chevez Hernandez in the northern city of San Pedro Sula. It read "We're finishing off the Chevezes. Next we're going to start with the priests" ("Estamos acabando con los Chevez. Luego vamos con los curas"). Gerardo Chevez is not related to Luis Antonio Chevez Hernandez, but shares the same family name. The director of Radio Progreso is a Jesuit priest, Padre Ismael Moreno. Gerardo Chevez had previously received a text message death threat on 29 March, which read: "Ha ha ha we're fucking up the journalists who talk shit like you" ("ja ja ja le estamos quebrando el culo a los periodistas a la mierda como vos"). Gerardo Chevez has recently reported on events organized by the opposition Resistance movement, and also on alleged local corruption.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
On 1 March, Joseph Hernandez Ochoa, a 26-year-old student and journalist was shot dead in Tegucigalpa. He was the first victim in the recent spate of killings of journalists. His colleague, journalist Carol Cabrera, was injured in the same attack. On 11 March, radio journalist David Meza Montesinos was killed by unidentified assailants who had followed his car and shot him as he drove home. He had been investigating the issue of drug trafficking and had received threats by phone for several weeks. Three days later, Nahum Palacios, news director for TV station Channel 5, was murdered while driving through the city of Tocoa, Colon department. He had investigated a land dispute in the Aguan region and had also reported on drug trafficking. On 24 July 2009, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had requested that Honduras immediately take steps to protect him, but the authorities took no action. Victor Manuel Juarez and Jose Bayardo Mairena both worked for the news program Asi es Olancho (This is Olancho) in Olancho department, eastern Honduras. They were shot from another vehicle on 27 March as they drove along a road in Olancho.
Following the coup d'etat on 28 June 2009 there were closures and occupation of media outlets by military personnel, the beating and physical attack of journalists, and journalists, particularly those investigating organized criminal activity, human rights violations or speaking out about the coup d'etat, have been subjected to threats and intimidation. Amnesty International documented violations during the coup d'etat in a report released on 27 January 2010 titled "Honduras: Recommendations to the new Honduran government following the coup of June 2009".
A new government led by Porfirio Lobo took office on 27 January 2010. Now, with six killings of journalists in just two months, the government must take urgent and immediate action to protect journalists receiving threats, prevent further deaths and investigate and bring to justice the culprits of these murders.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- publicly condemn killings and intimidation of journalists and make a commitment to protect journalists;
- act immediately to provide all necessary protection to Ricardo Oviedo and Gerardo Chevez and other journalists under threat, in accordance with their wishes;
- carry out an urgent, thorough and impartial investigation into the killings of the six journalists and the threats made against other journalists, with the results made public and those responsible brought to justice;
- implement all of the orders for protection from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
APPEALS TO:
President
Sr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa
Presidente de la Republica
Casa Presidencial
Boulevard Juan Pablo Segundo
Palacio Jose Cecilio del Valle
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 232 1666
Salutation: Dear President
Attorney General
Sr. Luis Alberto Rubi
Fiscal General de la Republica
Lomas del Guijarro, Avenida Republica Dominicana
Edificio Lomas Plaza II
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 221 5667
Salutation: Dear Attorney General
COPIES TO:
NGO
Comite de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras (COFADEH)
Barrio La Plazuela, Avenida Cervantes, Casa No. 1301
Apartado Postal 1243
Tegucigalpa, HONDURAS
Fax: 011 504 220 5280 (say "tono de fax")
Ambassador Roberto Flores Bermudez
Embassy of Honduras
3007 Tilden St. NW Suite 4M
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 966 9751
Email: lprado@hondurasemb.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 11 June 2010.
----------------------------------
Tip of the Month:
Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement
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Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
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600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
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Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
2 Urgent Actions 4-21-10
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa08910.pdf
21 April 2010
UA 89/10 Forcible Eviction
BRAZIL 250 Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people
Around 250 Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people are at risk of eviction from ancestral lands they recently occupied in the Brazilian midwest. If evicted they will be forced to live in precarious conditions by the side of a highway.
On 25 November 2009, the Guarani-Kaiowa community of Kurussu Amba, reoccupied a small part of their ancestral lands on farmlands by the Rio Verde river in the midwestern Brazilian municipality of Coronel Sapucaia. Until then, they had been encamped by the side of the MS-289 highway. On 10 March, a local judge issued an eviction order. Lawyers working on behalf of the Indigenous community lodged an appeal against the decision in the Regional Federal Court, but this appeal has not yet been heard. The Guarani-Kaiowa community of Kurussu Amba could be evicted at any time.
The community has lived by the side of the highway for four years, periodically staging reoccupations. During this period they have been subjected to constant threats and violence. In 2007, during another eviction following a reoccupation, Indigenous leader Xulita Lopes was shot dead by gunmen; later that year another Indigenous leader Ortiz Lopes was also shot dead. In November 2009, the community complained of threats from armed men.
Living conditions on the hard shoulder of the highway are extremely precarious, with inadequate supplies of food, water, basic sanitation and medical care. Since 2007, three children have died of malnutrition in the community.
The farmlands that the Kurussu Amba community are occupying should already have been identified by the authorities, as a part of an agreement between prosecutors, the federal government and indigenous leaders in 2007. However, a series of legal challenges has stalled this process, placing this community, along with many others, at risk of violent eviction and destitution.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Mato Grosso do Sul state contains some of the smallest, poorest and most densely populated Indigenous areas in Brazil: rural pockets of poverty surrounded by large soya and sugar cane plantations and cattle ranches where life is plagued by ill-health and squalid living conditions. Some 40,000 Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people live a precarious existence – social breakdown has led to high levels of violence, suicide and malnutrition. Frustrated at the slowness of the land demarcation process, the Guarani-Kaiowa have begun reoccupying ancestral lands, but have been subjected to intimidation and violent evictions.
In November 2007 the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, FUNAI and 23 Indigenous leaders, signed an agreement (Termo de Ajustamento de Conduta, TAC) which commits FUNAI to identify 36 different Guarani-Kaiowa ancestral lands - including Kurussu Amba land - by April 2010, to be handed over. The state government and the farming lobby have opposed the process, exaggerating the amount of land that could be identified as Indigenous in the media, and repeatedly trying to block the process judicially. There are currently over 80 appeals being heard in the Regional Federal Court (Tribunal Regional Federal) involving Indigenous land in Mato Grosso do Sul.
The Kurussu Amba community is one of several Guarani-Kaiowa communities who have left the overcrowded reservations and set up shacks by the side of the highway, near their ancestral lands. They have been subject to repeated threats from gunmen linked to local farmers. Four community members have been shot and three killed since 2007. Investigations have been inadequate and no one has yet been prosecuted for these crimes. Small children, pregnant women and the elderly have been living for years in totally inadequate housing, with poor healthcare and no access to basic services, including water. The community has repeatedly denounced their situation to local and federal authorities. Lack of any concrete action has resulted in a several attempts to reoccupy their ancestral lands.
Indigenous peoples enjoy specific rights under international standards. The two key standards that deal with Indigenous Peoples’ rights are International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007. Brazil was an early participant in the UN Working Groups that drafted the Declaration and voted for its adoption, noting that Indigenous Peoples in Brazil “were crucial to the development of society at every level, including the development of spiritual and cultural life for all.”
Together, Convention No. 169 and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provide a robust normative framework. They affirm Indigenous Peoples’ right to their traditional lands, along with their right to free, prior and informed consent in relation to developments that may affect these lands.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Calling on the federal authorities to challenge all eviction orders which put Indigenous Peoples at risk of violence or destitution;
- Urging the authorities to thoroughly investigate all allegations of threats against the Kurussu Amba community, and guarantee their security;
- Urging the authorities to fulfill their obligations under the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Brazilian constitution by completing all outstanding land demarcations.
APPEALS TO:
Federal Minister of Justice
Exmo. Sr. Tarso Genro
Esplanada dos Ministerios,
Bloco ‘‘T’‘
70712-902 - Brasilia/DF BRAZIL
Fax: 011 55 61 3322 6817
Salutation: Exmo. Sr. Ministro
Federal Human Rights Secretary
Secretaria Especial de Direitos Humanos
Exmo. Secretario Especial
Sr. Paulo de Tarso Vannuchi
Esplanada dos Ministerios - Bloco ‘‘T’‘ - 4ยบ andar,
70064-900 - Brasilia/DF BRAZIL
Fax: 011 55 61 3226 7980
Salutation: Exmo. Sr. Secretario
COPIES TO:
Conselho Indigenista Missionario, (CIMI – local NGO)
CIMI Regional Mato Grosso do Sul
Av. Afonso Pena,
1557 Sala 208 Bl.B
79002-070 Campo Grande/MS BRAZIL
Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota
Brazilian Embassy
3006 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 238 2827
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 2 June 2010.
----------------------------------
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Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible to the date a case is issued.
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To Canada:
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To Mexico:
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa08810.pdf
21 April 2010
UA 88/10 Imminent execution
IRAN Hossein Khezri (m)
Zeynab Jalalian (f)
Hossein Khezri, a 28-year-old man, and Zeynab Jalalian, a 27-year-old woman, both members of Iran’s Kurdish minority, are feared to be at imminent risk of execution. Both were convicted of “enmity against God”, in separate cases, for membership of the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan.
Hossein Khezri was arrested in Kermanshah in 2008, held in detention facilities under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence and Revolutionary Guards, and was later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court in Oromieh, north-west Iran, for “enmity against God” (“moharebeh”). His sentence was upheld in or around August 2009. He said he was tortured and asked for an investigation, but his request was denied in March 2010. On 11 April 2010, he was moved from Oromieh Central Prison to an unknown location, raising fears that his execution may be imminent.
Zeynab Jalalian, from Maku, a town in the north-west of Iran, was sentenced to death for “enmity against God” around January 2009 by Kermanshah Revolutionary Court. Before that, she had spent eight months in a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility, during which time her family had no information concerning her fate. She is reported not to have been granted access to a lawyer during her trial, which she said lasted only a few minutes. Zeynab Jalalian’s death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 26 November 2009.
In early March 2010, Zeynab Jalalian was moved from Kermanshah Prison to an unknown location, possibly a detention facility of the Ministry of Intelligence. After several weeks, in late March 2010, she was transferred to Section 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran. The precise reasons for her transfer are unknown, but the website Reporters and Human Rights Activists in Iran has reported that she said she is awaiting execution.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Zaynab Jalalian wrote a letter the day after her sentence was confirmed, which was published on the internet. In the letter, she claimed to have been tortured, and she said: “I asked the Judge if I could say good-bye to my mother. He told me “shut up.” The Judge rejected my appeal and refused to let me to see my mother.”
Kurds, who are one of Iran’s many minority groups, live mainly in the west and north-west of the country, in the province of Kordestan and neighboring provinces bordering Kurdish areas of Turkey and Iraq. They experience religious, economic and cultural discrimination (for further information see Iran: Human Rights Abuses against the Kurdish minority, July 2008, Index MDE 13/008/2008). For many years, Kurdish organizations such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Marxist group, Komala, conducted armed struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (known by its Kurdish acronym PJAK), formed in 2004, aims to establish in Iran a “democratic system in which all citizens: Iranians, Kurds, Azarbaijanis, Baluch, Turkmans, Arabs and all other ethnic groups within the framework of the democratic system can govern themselves”. It has carried out armed attacks against Iranian security forces, but declared a unilateral ceasefire in 2009.
The scope of capital crimes in Iran is broad, and includes “enmity against God”, often imposed for armed opposition to the state, but can include other national security offenses such as espionage. Two Kurdish men – Ehsan Fattahian and Fasih Yasmani - have been executed for such alleged offenses since November 2009 (see UA: 271/09 and follow ups and Iran: Halt executions of Kurdish and other political prisoners, 12 January 2010, Index: MDE 13/007/2010)
At least 18 other Kurdish men and one other Kurdish woman are believed to be on death row in connection with their alleged membership of and activities for banned Kurdish organizations. They include Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili, Habibollah Latifi, Sherko Moarefi, Ali Haydarian, Anvar Rostami, Rostam Arkiya, Mostafa Salimi, Hassan Talai, Iraj Mohammadi, Rashid Akhkandi, Mohammad Amin Agoushi, Ahmad Pouladkani, Sayed Sami Hosseini, Sayed Jamal Mohammadi, Mohammad Amin Abdolahi, Ghader Mohamadzadeh, Aziz Mohammadzadeh and Shirin Alam-Hoei. Some have had their prison sentences increased to death sentences on appeal. For further information on some of the Kurds on death row for political offenses, see Iran: Worsening repression of dissent as election approaches, February 2009, MDE 13/012/2009: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/012/2009/en
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Urging the Iranian authorities not to execute Hossein Khezri and Zeynab Jalalian;
- Calling on them to commute their death sentences and to retry them in fair proceedings in line with international law and to disregard any evidence obtained under torture or other ill-treatment;
- Stating that Amnesty International recognizes the right and responsibility of governments to bring to justice, in conformity with international standards for fair trial, those suspected of criminal offenses, but opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street – End of Shahid Keshvar Doust
Street, Tehran,
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Email: info_leader@leader.ir
via website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=letter (English)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Sadeqh Larijani
Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri,
Tehran, 1316814737
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Email: Via website: http://www.dadiran.ir/tabid/75/Default.aspx
First starred box: your given name;
Second starred box: your family name;
Third starred box: your email address
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
Secretary General, High Council for Human Rights
Mohammad Javad Larijani
Howzeh Riassat-e Ghoveh Ghazaiyeh
Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhuri
Tehran 1316814737
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Fax: 011 98 21 3390 4986
Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com (In subject line: FAO Mohammad Javad Larijani)
Iran does not presently have an embassy in the United States. Instead, please send copies to:
Iranian Interests Section
2209 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington DC 20007
Phone: 202 965 4990
Fax: 1 202 965 1073
Email: requests@daftar.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 2 June 2010.
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
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21 April 2010
UA 89/10 Forcible Eviction
BRAZIL 250 Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people
Around 250 Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people are at risk of eviction from ancestral lands they recently occupied in the Brazilian midwest. If evicted they will be forced to live in precarious conditions by the side of a highway.
On 25 November 2009, the Guarani-Kaiowa community of Kurussu Amba, reoccupied a small part of their ancestral lands on farmlands by the Rio Verde river in the midwestern Brazilian municipality of Coronel Sapucaia. Until then, they had been encamped by the side of the MS-289 highway. On 10 March, a local judge issued an eviction order. Lawyers working on behalf of the Indigenous community lodged an appeal against the decision in the Regional Federal Court, but this appeal has not yet been heard. The Guarani-Kaiowa community of Kurussu Amba could be evicted at any time.
The community has lived by the side of the highway for four years, periodically staging reoccupations. During this period they have been subjected to constant threats and violence. In 2007, during another eviction following a reoccupation, Indigenous leader Xulita Lopes was shot dead by gunmen; later that year another Indigenous leader Ortiz Lopes was also shot dead. In November 2009, the community complained of threats from armed men.
Living conditions on the hard shoulder of the highway are extremely precarious, with inadequate supplies of food, water, basic sanitation and medical care. Since 2007, three children have died of malnutrition in the community.
The farmlands that the Kurussu Amba community are occupying should already have been identified by the authorities, as a part of an agreement between prosecutors, the federal government and indigenous leaders in 2007. However, a series of legal challenges has stalled this process, placing this community, along with many others, at risk of violent eviction and destitution.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Mato Grosso do Sul state contains some of the smallest, poorest and most densely populated Indigenous areas in Brazil: rural pockets of poverty surrounded by large soya and sugar cane plantations and cattle ranches where life is plagued by ill-health and squalid living conditions. Some 40,000 Guarani-Kaiowa Indigenous people live a precarious existence – social breakdown has led to high levels of violence, suicide and malnutrition. Frustrated at the slowness of the land demarcation process, the Guarani-Kaiowa have begun reoccupying ancestral lands, but have been subjected to intimidation and violent evictions.
In November 2007 the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, FUNAI and 23 Indigenous leaders, signed an agreement (Termo de Ajustamento de Conduta, TAC) which commits FUNAI to identify 36 different Guarani-Kaiowa ancestral lands - including Kurussu Amba land - by April 2010, to be handed over. The state government and the farming lobby have opposed the process, exaggerating the amount of land that could be identified as Indigenous in the media, and repeatedly trying to block the process judicially. There are currently over 80 appeals being heard in the Regional Federal Court (Tribunal Regional Federal) involving Indigenous land in Mato Grosso do Sul.
The Kurussu Amba community is one of several Guarani-Kaiowa communities who have left the overcrowded reservations and set up shacks by the side of the highway, near their ancestral lands. They have been subject to repeated threats from gunmen linked to local farmers. Four community members have been shot and three killed since 2007. Investigations have been inadequate and no one has yet been prosecuted for these crimes. Small children, pregnant women and the elderly have been living for years in totally inadequate housing, with poor healthcare and no access to basic services, including water. The community has repeatedly denounced their situation to local and federal authorities. Lack of any concrete action has resulted in a several attempts to reoccupy their ancestral lands.
Indigenous peoples enjoy specific rights under international standards. The two key standards that deal with Indigenous Peoples’ rights are International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007. Brazil was an early participant in the UN Working Groups that drafted the Declaration and voted for its adoption, noting that Indigenous Peoples in Brazil “were crucial to the development of society at every level, including the development of spiritual and cultural life for all.”
Together, Convention No. 169 and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provide a robust normative framework. They affirm Indigenous Peoples’ right to their traditional lands, along with their right to free, prior and informed consent in relation to developments that may affect these lands.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Calling on the federal authorities to challenge all eviction orders which put Indigenous Peoples at risk of violence or destitution;
- Urging the authorities to thoroughly investigate all allegations of threats against the Kurussu Amba community, and guarantee their security;
- Urging the authorities to fulfill their obligations under the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Brazilian constitution by completing all outstanding land demarcations.
APPEALS TO:
Federal Minister of Justice
Exmo. Sr. Tarso Genro
Esplanada dos Ministerios,
Bloco ‘‘T’‘
70712-902 - Brasilia/DF BRAZIL
Fax: 011 55 61 3322 6817
Salutation: Exmo. Sr. Ministro
Federal Human Rights Secretary
Secretaria Especial de Direitos Humanos
Exmo. Secretario Especial
Sr. Paulo de Tarso Vannuchi
Esplanada dos Ministerios - Bloco ‘‘T’‘ - 4ยบ andar,
70064-900 - Brasilia/DF BRAZIL
Fax: 011 55 61 3226 7980
Salutation: Exmo. Sr. Secretario
COPIES TO:
Conselho Indigenista Missionario, (CIMI – local NGO)
CIMI Regional Mato Grosso do Sul
Av. Afonso Pena,
1557 Sala 208 Bl.B
79002-070 Campo Grande/MS BRAZIL
Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota
Brazilian Embassy
3006 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 238 2827
Email: ambassador@brasilemb.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 2 June 2010.
----------------------------------
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
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Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa08810.pdf
21 April 2010
UA 88/10 Imminent execution
IRAN Hossein Khezri (m)
Zeynab Jalalian (f)
Hossein Khezri, a 28-year-old man, and Zeynab Jalalian, a 27-year-old woman, both members of Iran’s Kurdish minority, are feared to be at imminent risk of execution. Both were convicted of “enmity against God”, in separate cases, for membership of the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan.
Hossein Khezri was arrested in Kermanshah in 2008, held in detention facilities under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence and Revolutionary Guards, and was later sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court in Oromieh, north-west Iran, for “enmity against God” (“moharebeh”). His sentence was upheld in or around August 2009. He said he was tortured and asked for an investigation, but his request was denied in March 2010. On 11 April 2010, he was moved from Oromieh Central Prison to an unknown location, raising fears that his execution may be imminent.
Zeynab Jalalian, from Maku, a town in the north-west of Iran, was sentenced to death for “enmity against God” around January 2009 by Kermanshah Revolutionary Court. Before that, she had spent eight months in a Ministry of Intelligence detention facility, during which time her family had no information concerning her fate. She is reported not to have been granted access to a lawyer during her trial, which she said lasted only a few minutes. Zeynab Jalalian’s death sentence was confirmed by the Supreme Court on 26 November 2009.
In early March 2010, Zeynab Jalalian was moved from Kermanshah Prison to an unknown location, possibly a detention facility of the Ministry of Intelligence. After several weeks, in late March 2010, she was transferred to Section 209 of Evin Prison in Tehran. The precise reasons for her transfer are unknown, but the website Reporters and Human Rights Activists in Iran has reported that she said she is awaiting execution.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Zaynab Jalalian wrote a letter the day after her sentence was confirmed, which was published on the internet. In the letter, she claimed to have been tortured, and she said: “I asked the Judge if I could say good-bye to my mother. He told me “shut up.” The Judge rejected my appeal and refused to let me to see my mother.”
Kurds, who are one of Iran’s many minority groups, live mainly in the west and north-west of the country, in the province of Kordestan and neighboring provinces bordering Kurdish areas of Turkey and Iraq. They experience religious, economic and cultural discrimination (for further information see Iran: Human Rights Abuses against the Kurdish minority, July 2008, Index MDE 13/008/2008). For many years, Kurdish organizations such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) and the Marxist group, Komala, conducted armed struggle against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (known by its Kurdish acronym PJAK), formed in 2004, aims to establish in Iran a “democratic system in which all citizens: Iranians, Kurds, Azarbaijanis, Baluch, Turkmans, Arabs and all other ethnic groups within the framework of the democratic system can govern themselves”. It has carried out armed attacks against Iranian security forces, but declared a unilateral ceasefire in 2009.
The scope of capital crimes in Iran is broad, and includes “enmity against God”, often imposed for armed opposition to the state, but can include other national security offenses such as espionage. Two Kurdish men – Ehsan Fattahian and Fasih Yasmani - have been executed for such alleged offenses since November 2009 (see UA: 271/09 and follow ups and Iran: Halt executions of Kurdish and other political prisoners, 12 January 2010, Index: MDE 13/007/2010)
At least 18 other Kurdish men and one other Kurdish woman are believed to be on death row in connection with their alleged membership of and activities for banned Kurdish organizations. They include Farzad Kamangar, Farhad Vakili, Habibollah Latifi, Sherko Moarefi, Ali Haydarian, Anvar Rostami, Rostam Arkiya, Mostafa Salimi, Hassan Talai, Iraj Mohammadi, Rashid Akhkandi, Mohammad Amin Agoushi, Ahmad Pouladkani, Sayed Sami Hosseini, Sayed Jamal Mohammadi, Mohammad Amin Abdolahi, Ghader Mohamadzadeh, Aziz Mohammadzadeh and Shirin Alam-Hoei. Some have had their prison sentences increased to death sentences on appeal. For further information on some of the Kurds on death row for political offenses, see Iran: Worsening repression of dissent as election approaches, February 2009, MDE 13/012/2009: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE13/012/2009/en
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Urging the Iranian authorities not to execute Hossein Khezri and Zeynab Jalalian;
- Calling on them to commute their death sentences and to retry them in fair proceedings in line with international law and to disregard any evidence obtained under torture or other ill-treatment;
- Stating that Amnesty International recognizes the right and responsibility of governments to bring to justice, in conformity with international standards for fair trial, those suspected of criminal offenses, but opposes the death penalty as the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
APPEALS TO:
Leader of the Islamic Republic
Ayatollah Sayed ‘Ali Khamenei
The Office of the Supreme Leader
Islamic Republic Street – End of Shahid Keshvar Doust
Street, Tehran,
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Email: info_leader@leader.ir
via website: http://www.leader.ir/langs/en/index.php?p=letter (English)
Salutation: Your Excellency
Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Sadeqh Larijani
Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri,
Tehran, 1316814737
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Email: Via website: http://www.dadiran.ir/tabid/75/Default.aspx
First starred box: your given name;
Second starred box: your family name;
Third starred box: your email address
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
Secretary General, High Council for Human Rights
Mohammad Javad Larijani
Howzeh Riassat-e Ghoveh Ghazaiyeh
Pasteur St, Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhuri
Tehran 1316814737
ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN
Fax: 011 98 21 3390 4986
Email: bia.judi@yahoo.com (In subject line: FAO Mohammad Javad Larijani)
Iran does not presently have an embassy in the United States. Instead, please send copies to:
Iranian Interests Section
2209 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington DC 20007
Phone: 202 965 4990
Fax: 1 202 965 1073
Email: requests@daftar.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 2 June 2010.
----------------------------------
Tip of the Month:
Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible to the date a case is issued.
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable). Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Urgent Action 4-16-10
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
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16 April 2010
UA 82/10 Prisoners of conscience/ health concern
MOROCCO Ahmed Alansari (m)
Brahim Dahane (m)
Yahdih Ettarouzi (m)
Rachid Sghir (m)
Ali Salem Tamek (m)
Six Sahrawi prisoners of conscience are on hunger strike in protest at being held without trial in Morocco for over six months. Their families are gravely concerned for their health.
Ahmed Alansari, Brahim Dahane, Yahdih Ettarouzi, Rachid Sghir and Ali Salem Tamek, all men, have been on hunger strike since mid-March, in Sale prison near the Moroccan capital, Rabat. A sixth detained man, Saleh Labihi, who initially did not participate in a hunger strike for health reasons, joined the strike on 5 April in solidarity with the others. Their lawyers visited them on 12 April, and reported that five of the detainees were brought in to meet them in wheelchairs. They were so weak that they had difficulty speaking or even opening their eyes for long periods In addition, Ali Salem Tamek also suffers from asthma and according to his family, Brahim Dahane is suffering from acute stomach pain.
The six men, and a woman, Dakja Lashgar, were arrested on 8 October 2009 at Mohammed V airport in Casablanca when they returned from visiting refugee camps in Tindouf, in south-western Algeria. Dakja Lashgar was provisionally released in January on health grounds. All belong to a number of human rights organizations and other civil society groups in Western Sahara, a territory Morocco controversially annexed in 1975, and several have long track records in monitoring and reporting on human rights violations committed by the Moroccan authorities. Although they are all civilians, they have been referred for trial in front of the Military Court on charges of undermining Morocco’s security including its “territorial integrity”, but six months after their arrest no date for their trial has yet been set. The six Sahrawi activists are determined to continue their hunger strike unless they are referred to trial immediately, or released unconditionally.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Moroccan authorities show little tolerance for expressing views in favor of the self-determination of Western Sahara, which is subject of a territorial dispute between Morocco which annexed it in 1975 and the Polisario Front, which calls for its independence and runs a self-proclaimed government in exile in the Tindouf camps.
Amnesty International fears that the charges against the seven Sahrawi activists are a result of their peaceful activities in support of the self-determination of the Sahrawi people. It believes that the activities that the seven are reported to have undertaken during their visit to Algeria, including the Tindouf camps, between 26 September and 8 October, such as meeting with Polisario representatives and attending festivals and other events organized in their honor, amount merely to the peaceful and legitimate exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly as guaranteed in international law and standards. Amnesty International is concerned that the Moroccan authorities are treating peaceful political activities challenging Morocco’s “territorial integrity” as a national security issue. Amnesty International believes that activities in support of self-determination, as long as they do not involve the use or advocacy of violence, should not be interpreted by the Moroccan state as threats to “national security”.In mid-April 2010, the activists’ lawyers met with the investigative judge at the Military Court, responsible for conducting the investigation into their case. He told them that the investigation is ongoing, but provided no indication as to when it is expected to conclude.
Family visits between Western Sahara and the Tindouf camps in south-western Algeria have taken place under the auspices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees; and Sahrawi activists have previously visited Algeria. The visit by the seven Sahrawi activists to the Tindouf camps in late September and early October was, however, the first of its kind. Since then, two other groups of Sahrawi activists visited the camps: one between 22 February and 7 March and the other between 15 March and 5 April 2010. While they did not face arrest and charges upon their return, they were subjected to other forms of harassment and intimidation. For instance, when 11 Sahrawi activists flew back to the city of Laayoune on 6 April after visiting the Tindouf camps, they were reportedly beaten and verbally insulted by Moroccan nationals in front of Moroccan law enforcement officials at Laayoune airport, who failed to intervene. The Moroccan nationals were chanting pro-Moroccan slogans including: “Moroccan Sahara Autonomy. That is the solution” and “Oh traitors. Leave our country. This is our land.” In another instance of harassment of Sahrawi activists who have returned from the Tindouf camps, the Moroccan authorities used excessive force to break up a demonstration on 9 March 2010 in favor of self-determination for Western Sahara held in Laayoune and beat some of the protesters including Brahim
Sabbar, Secretary General of the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State, who had returned a few days earlier from the Tindouf camps. He told Amnesty International that he was beaten by at least four law enforcement officers with wooden sticks on different parts of his body including his head.
In addition to the six Sahrawi prisoners of conscience on hunger strike in Sale prison, 30 other Sahrawis are on hunger strike in different prisons in Morocco and Western Sahara in protests at the treatment they are receiving from the Moroccan authorities.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Expressing grave concern for the health of Ahmed Alansari, Brahim Dahane, Yahdih Ettarouzi, Rachid Sghir, Ali Salem Tamek and Saleh Labihi, and urging the Moroccan authorities to ensure that they are given access to medical treatment of their choice, as well as regular access to their families
and access to lawyers;
- Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the six, as they are held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association, and for charges against them and Dakja Lashgar to be dropped;
- Calling on the Moroccan authorities to ensure that Sahrawi human rights defenders are able to conduct their work without fear of harassment in compliance with their obligations under international human rights treaties, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, and in conformity to the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Declaration on Human Rights Defenders).
APPEALS TO:
Minister of Justice
His Excellency Mohamed Naciri
Ministry of Justice
Place Mamounia, Rabat
Maroc, MOROCCO
Fax: 011 212 537 72 37 10 OR 011 212 537 73 07 72 OR 011 212 537 73 47 25
Salutation: Your Excellency
Minister of Interior
His Excellency Taieb Charkaoui
Ministry of Interior
Quartier Administratif, Rabat
Maroc, MOROCCO
Fax: 011 212 537762056
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
President of the Advisory Board of Human Rights
Ahmed Herzenni
Place Ach-chouhada,
B.P. 1341, 10000 Rabat
Maroc, MOROCCO
Fax: 011 212 37 726856
Email: ccdh@ccdh.org.ma
Ambassador Aziz Mekouar
Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco
1601 21st St. NW
Washington DC 20009
Fax: 202 265 0161 OR 202 462 7643 (Ms. Mouna Mouline, Human Rights)
Email: annexusa@erols.com,
sifarausa@erols.com,
mmouline@moroccous.com
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 14 May 2010.
----------------------------------
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including contact information and stop action date (if applicable).Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa08210.pdf
16 April 2010
UA 82/10 Prisoners of conscience/ health concern
MOROCCO Ahmed Alansari (m)
Brahim Dahane (m)
Yahdih Ettarouzi (m)
Rachid Sghir (m)
Ali Salem Tamek (m)
Six Sahrawi prisoners of conscience are on hunger strike in protest at being held without trial in Morocco for over six months. Their families are gravely concerned for their health.
Ahmed Alansari, Brahim Dahane, Yahdih Ettarouzi, Rachid Sghir and Ali Salem Tamek, all men, have been on hunger strike since mid-March, in Sale prison near the Moroccan capital, Rabat. A sixth detained man, Saleh Labihi, who initially did not participate in a hunger strike for health reasons, joined the strike on 5 April in solidarity with the others. Their lawyers visited them on 12 April, and reported that five of the detainees were brought in to meet them in wheelchairs. They were so weak that they had difficulty speaking or even opening their eyes for long periods In addition, Ali Salem Tamek also suffers from asthma and according to his family, Brahim Dahane is suffering from acute stomach pain.
The six men, and a woman, Dakja Lashgar, were arrested on 8 October 2009 at Mohammed V airport in Casablanca when they returned from visiting refugee camps in Tindouf, in south-western Algeria. Dakja Lashgar was provisionally released in January on health grounds. All belong to a number of human rights organizations and other civil society groups in Western Sahara, a territory Morocco controversially annexed in 1975, and several have long track records in monitoring and reporting on human rights violations committed by the Moroccan authorities. Although they are all civilians, they have been referred for trial in front of the Military Court on charges of undermining Morocco’s security including its “territorial integrity”, but six months after their arrest no date for their trial has yet been set. The six Sahrawi activists are determined to continue their hunger strike unless they are referred to trial immediately, or released unconditionally.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Moroccan authorities show little tolerance for expressing views in favor of the self-determination of Western Sahara, which is subject of a territorial dispute between Morocco which annexed it in 1975 and the Polisario Front, which calls for its independence and runs a self-proclaimed government in exile in the Tindouf camps.
Amnesty International fears that the charges against the seven Sahrawi activists are a result of their peaceful activities in support of the self-determination of the Sahrawi people. It believes that the activities that the seven are reported to have undertaken during their visit to Algeria, including the Tindouf camps, between 26 September and 8 October, such as meeting with Polisario representatives and attending festivals and other events organized in their honor, amount merely to the peaceful and legitimate exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly as guaranteed in international law and standards. Amnesty International is concerned that the Moroccan authorities are treating peaceful political activities challenging Morocco’s “territorial integrity” as a national security issue. Amnesty International believes that activities in support of self-determination, as long as they do not involve the use or advocacy of violence, should not be interpreted by the Moroccan state as threats to “national security”.In mid-April 2010, the activists’ lawyers met with the investigative judge at the Military Court, responsible for conducting the investigation into their case. He told them that the investigation is ongoing, but provided no indication as to when it is expected to conclude.
Family visits between Western Sahara and the Tindouf camps in south-western Algeria have taken place under the auspices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees; and Sahrawi activists have previously visited Algeria. The visit by the seven Sahrawi activists to the Tindouf camps in late September and early October was, however, the first of its kind. Since then, two other groups of Sahrawi activists visited the camps: one between 22 February and 7 March and the other between 15 March and 5 April 2010. While they did not face arrest and charges upon their return, they were subjected to other forms of harassment and intimidation. For instance, when 11 Sahrawi activists flew back to the city of Laayoune on 6 April after visiting the Tindouf camps, they were reportedly beaten and verbally insulted by Moroccan nationals in front of Moroccan law enforcement officials at Laayoune airport, who failed to intervene. The Moroccan nationals were chanting pro-Moroccan slogans including: “Moroccan Sahara Autonomy. That is the solution” and “Oh traitors. Leave our country. This is our land.” In another instance of harassment of Sahrawi activists who have returned from the Tindouf camps, the Moroccan authorities used excessive force to break up a demonstration on 9 March 2010 in favor of self-determination for Western Sahara held in Laayoune and beat some of the protesters including Brahim
Sabbar, Secretary General of the Sahrawi Association of Victims of Grave Human Rights Violations Committed by the Moroccan State, who had returned a few days earlier from the Tindouf camps. He told Amnesty International that he was beaten by at least four law enforcement officers with wooden sticks on different parts of his body including his head.
In addition to the six Sahrawi prisoners of conscience on hunger strike in Sale prison, 30 other Sahrawis are on hunger strike in different prisons in Morocco and Western Sahara in protests at the treatment they are receiving from the Moroccan authorities.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- Expressing grave concern for the health of Ahmed Alansari, Brahim Dahane, Yahdih Ettarouzi, Rachid Sghir, Ali Salem Tamek and Saleh Labihi, and urging the Moroccan authorities to ensure that they are given access to medical treatment of their choice, as well as regular access to their families
and access to lawyers;
- Calling for the immediate and unconditional release of the six, as they are held solely for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression and association, and for charges against them and Dakja Lashgar to be dropped;
- Calling on the Moroccan authorities to ensure that Sahrawi human rights defenders are able to conduct their work without fear of harassment in compliance with their obligations under international human rights treaties, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, and in conformity to the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Declaration on Human Rights Defenders).
APPEALS TO:
Minister of Justice
His Excellency Mohamed Naciri
Ministry of Justice
Place Mamounia, Rabat
Maroc, MOROCCO
Fax: 011 212 537 72 37 10 OR 011 212 537 73 07 72 OR 011 212 537 73 47 25
Salutation: Your Excellency
Minister of Interior
His Excellency Taieb Charkaoui
Ministry of Interior
Quartier Administratif, Rabat
Maroc, MOROCCO
Fax: 011 212 537762056
Salutation: Your Excellency
COPIES TO:
President of the Advisory Board of Human Rights
Ahmed Herzenni
Place Ach-chouhada,
B.P. 1341, 10000 Rabat
Maroc, MOROCCO
Fax: 011 212 37 726856
Email: ccdh@ccdh.org.ma
Ambassador Aziz Mekouar
Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco
1601 21st St. NW
Washington DC 20009
Fax: 202 265 0161 OR 202 462 7643 (Ms. Mouna Mouline, Human Rights)
Email: annexusa@erols.com,
sifarausa@erols.com,
mmouline@moroccous.com
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 14 May 2010.
----------------------------------
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.
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Urgent Action Network
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Email: uan@aiusa.org
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Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Urgent Action 4-15-10
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa08110.pdf
15 April 2010
UA 81/10 - Arbitrary detention/Abduction
VENEZUELA
Gabriel Antonio Ramirez (m), aged 23
Jose Leonardo Ramirez (m), aged 21
Nedfrank Xavier Cona (m), aged 19
Three young men were abducted, apparently by police officers, from a construction site where they were working in Venezuela on 12 March. They have not been seen since and their families have no idea where they are or whether they are still alive.
Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, aged 23, Jose Leonardo Ramirez, aged 21, and 19-year-old Nedfrank Xavier Cona, were all working as laborers on new university buildings in the city of Barcelona in Anzoategui state, north eastern Venezuela. According to local human rights organization Fundacion de los Derechos Humanos del Estado Anzoategui, eyewitnesses have described how at around 6.50 am on 12 March, a group of between 17 and 20 police officers jumped over the back of the construction site and bundled all three men into an unmarked car. Eyewitnesses could not see the occupants of the car, but saw it drive away, escorted by the officers on their police motorbikes.
Relatives of the three men have visited a number of police stations to try and find out what has happened to them, but there is no information on the men's whereabouts. Their families and the Fundacion de los Derechos Humanos del Estado Anzoategui are not aware of any arrest warrant having been issued against the three men. The Public Prosecutor's office in Anzoategui has apparently opened an investigation into the abduction.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- expressing concern for the safety of Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, Jose Leonardo Ramirez, and Nedfrank Xavier Cona who were seen being detained by police officers on 12 March 2010 in Barcelona, Anzoategui state;
- urging the authorities to make every effort to locate Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, Jose Leonardo Ramirez and Nedfrank Xavier Cona;
- calling on them to order an independent and impartial investigation into the apparent unlawful detention of Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, Jose Leonardo Ramirez and Nedfrank Xavier Cona, and bring those responsible to justice;
- calling on the authorities to immediately acknowledge the detention of Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, Jose Leonardo Ramirez, and Nedfrank Xavier Cona, if they are in custody, and ensure that they are given access to their families, lawyers and any medical attention they may require, and are charged with a recognizably criminal offense or released;
- calling for effective measures to ensure police operations are carried out in accordance with the law and international human rights standards, and that any alleged abuses are promptly and impartially investigated.
APPEALS TO:
Minister of the Interior and Justice
Sr. Tarek El Aissami
Ministerio del Poder Popular para
Relaciones Interiores y Justicia
Av. Urdaneta, Edif. Sede MIJ, Piso1
Carmelitas, Caracas
VENEZUELA
Fax: 011 58 212 506 1557
Salutation: Senor Ministro/Dear Minister
Governor of Anzoategui state
Sr. Tarek William Saab
Palacio de Gobierno
Av. 5 de Julio
Diagonal a la Plaza Barrio
Barcelona, Anzoategui
VENEZUELA
Fax: 011 58 281 275 1671
Email: tarek@gobernaciondeanzoategui.com
tarek@psuv.org.ve
(please copy both)
Salutation: Senor Gobernador/Dear Governor
COPIES TO:
Human rights organization
Fundacion de los Derechos Humanos del Estado de Anzoategui
Calle Buenos Aires cruce con calle Las Flores, 19-73
Barcelona, Anzoategui
VENEZUELA
Fax: 01158 281 276 3531
Email: fdhanzoategui1@gmail.com
Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera
Embassy of the Republic of Venezuela
1099 30th St. NW
Washington DC 20007
Fax: 1 202 342 6820
Email: prensa@embavenez-us.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 27 May 2010.
----------------------------------
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement
that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
contact information and stop action date (if applicable).
Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa08110.pdf
15 April 2010
UA 81/10 - Arbitrary detention/Abduction
VENEZUELA
Gabriel Antonio Ramirez (m), aged 23
Jose Leonardo Ramirez (m), aged 21
Nedfrank Xavier Cona (m), aged 19
Three young men were abducted, apparently by police officers, from a construction site where they were working in Venezuela on 12 March. They have not been seen since and their families have no idea where they are or whether they are still alive.
Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, aged 23, Jose Leonardo Ramirez, aged 21, and 19-year-old Nedfrank Xavier Cona, were all working as laborers on new university buildings in the city of Barcelona in Anzoategui state, north eastern Venezuela. According to local human rights organization Fundacion de los Derechos Humanos del Estado Anzoategui, eyewitnesses have described how at around 6.50 am on 12 March, a group of between 17 and 20 police officers jumped over the back of the construction site and bundled all three men into an unmarked car. Eyewitnesses could not see the occupants of the car, but saw it drive away, escorted by the officers on their police motorbikes.
Relatives of the three men have visited a number of police stations to try and find out what has happened to them, but there is no information on the men's whereabouts. Their families and the Fundacion de los Derechos Humanos del Estado Anzoategui are not aware of any arrest warrant having been issued against the three men. The Public Prosecutor's office in Anzoategui has apparently opened an investigation into the abduction.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
- expressing concern for the safety of Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, Jose Leonardo Ramirez, and Nedfrank Xavier Cona who were seen being detained by police officers on 12 March 2010 in Barcelona, Anzoategui state;
- urging the authorities to make every effort to locate Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, Jose Leonardo Ramirez and Nedfrank Xavier Cona;
- calling on them to order an independent and impartial investigation into the apparent unlawful detention of Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, Jose Leonardo Ramirez and Nedfrank Xavier Cona, and bring those responsible to justice;
- calling on the authorities to immediately acknowledge the detention of Gabriel Antonio Ramirez, Jose Leonardo Ramirez, and Nedfrank Xavier Cona, if they are in custody, and ensure that they are given access to their families, lawyers and any medical attention they may require, and are charged with a recognizably criminal offense or released;
- calling for effective measures to ensure police operations are carried out in accordance with the law and international human rights standards, and that any alleged abuses are promptly and impartially investigated.
APPEALS TO:
Minister of the Interior and Justice
Sr. Tarek El Aissami
Ministerio del Poder Popular para
Relaciones Interiores y Justicia
Av. Urdaneta, Edif. Sede MIJ, Piso1
Carmelitas, Caracas
VENEZUELA
Fax: 011 58 212 506 1557
Salutation: Senor Ministro/Dear Minister
Governor of Anzoategui state
Sr. Tarek William Saab
Palacio de Gobierno
Av. 5 de Julio
Diagonal a la Plaza Barrio
Barcelona, Anzoategui
VENEZUELA
Fax: 011 58 281 275 1671
Email: tarek@gobernaciondeanzoategui.com
tarek@psuv.org.ve
(please copy both)
Salutation: Senor Gobernador/Dear Governor
COPIES TO:
Human rights organization
Fundacion de los Derechos Humanos del Estado de Anzoategui
Calle Buenos Aires cruce con calle Las Flores, 19-73
Barcelona, Anzoategui
VENEZUELA
Fax: 01158 281 276 3531
Email: fdhanzoategui1@gmail.com
Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez Herrera
Embassy of the Republic of Venezuela
1099 30th St. NW
Washington DC 20007
Fax: 1 202 342 6820
Email: prensa@embavenez-us.org
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 27 May 2010.
----------------------------------
Tip of the Month:
Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible
to the date a case is issued.
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Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement
that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
contact information and stop action date (if applicable).
Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Urgent Action 4-14-10
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa07710.pdf
12 April 2010
UA 77/10 - Health concern
CHINA Hu Jia (m)
Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia, imprisoned in Beijing, is gravely ill. He is not receiving adequate treatment in prison and has been denied parole on medical grounds. His life may be in danger if he does not receive the treatment he needs.
Hu Jia is serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, imposed in 2008, for "inciting subversion". He was diagnosed with hepatitis B before he was imprisoned. On 12 April, a doctor at the Beijing City Prison Hospital, telephoned Hu Jia's mother and told her that the medical check found a benign tumor in his liver. The doctor explained that since it is curable, Hu Jia has been sent from the prison hospital back to his cell. His family has asked that the prison provide them with the full report produced after the medical examination, including the CT scan that Hu Jia's mother authorized, in order to confirm this diagnosis, but the prison authorities refused.
Hu Jia's family believes hat his condition may be more serious than the prison doctor has stated, and that he may have liver cancer. His wife, Zeng Jinyan, has documented his deteriorating health since his detention. Prison doctors detected a mass approximately 3cm in diameter in his abdomen. A previous prison hospital check-up found Hu Jia had gallstones, a protrusion in his liver and high blood pressure complications from chronic liver disease.
As they are concerned that he is not receiving adequate treatment in prison, Hu Jia's family is urgently requesting the prison grant him medical parole, as provided for in Chinese law. An earlier request for medical parole was rejected in 2009. Zeng Jinyan submitted another application for Hu Jia’s medical parole on 7 April 2010, which the authorities told her on 12 April they also rejected.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Hu Jia was detained on 27 December 2007 on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power" under Article 105 of the Chinese Criminal Law and was held at the Beijing Municipal Police Detention Center, in Chaoyang district. He was tried on 18 March and 3 April 2008 at the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years imprisonment for "inciting subversion" on 3 April 2008.
Prior to being imprisoned, Hu Jia had been diagnosed with hepatitis B, and had been taking medication to manage the disease. However, due to long term use, the medicine was no longer proving effective, and in January 2009 he stopped taking it altogether.
According to Chinese regulations concerning prisoners, Hu Jia qualifies for medical parole, as he has completed one-third of his prison sentence and the state of his health is of serious concern. However, requests from Hu Jia's family for him to be given a medical assessment and treatment outside the prison, and international calls for Hu Jia to be granted adequate health care were ignored by the prison authorities in 2008 and 2009.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
* Expressing grave concern that Hu Jia is not receiving adequate medical care;
* Urging the authorities to release Hu Jia's medical reports and test results to his family;
* Urging the authorities to grant Hu Jia medical parole so he can be examined by an independent doctor and receive adequate medical treatment.
APPEALS TO:
Director of Beijing Municipal Prison Management Bureau
Zheng Zhenyuan Juzhang
No.4 Lirenjie
Xuanwu district
Beijingshi, 100054
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Email: bj@bjjgj.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Director
Minister of Justice of the People's Republic of China
WU Aiying Buzhang
Sifabu
10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie
Chaoyangqu
Beijingshi 100020
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Fax: 011 86 10 65292345
Email: pfmaster@legalinfo.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Minister
COPIES TO:
Premier of the People's Republic of China
WEN Jiabao Guojia Zongli
The State Council General Office
2 Fuyoujie
Xichengqu
Beijingshi 100017
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Fax: 011 86 10 65961109
(c/o Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Ambassador Wen Zhong Zhou
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
3505 International Place NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 465-2190
Email: chinaembassy_us@fmprc.gov.cn
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 24 May 2010.
----------------------------------
Tip of the Month:
Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible
to the date a case is issued.
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To Canada:
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To Mexico:
$0.79 - Postcards
$0.79 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
To all other destination countries:
$0.98 - Postcards
$0.98 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement
that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
contact information and stop action date (if applicable).
Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------
- From Amnesty International USA
To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
----------------------------------
For a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa07710.pdf
12 April 2010
UA 77/10 - Health concern
CHINA Hu Jia (m)
Chinese human rights activist Hu Jia, imprisoned in Beijing, is gravely ill. He is not receiving adequate treatment in prison and has been denied parole on medical grounds. His life may be in danger if he does not receive the treatment he needs.
Hu Jia is serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, imposed in 2008, for "inciting subversion". He was diagnosed with hepatitis B before he was imprisoned. On 12 April, a doctor at the Beijing City Prison Hospital, telephoned Hu Jia's mother and told her that the medical check found a benign tumor in his liver. The doctor explained that since it is curable, Hu Jia has been sent from the prison hospital back to his cell. His family has asked that the prison provide them with the full report produced after the medical examination, including the CT scan that Hu Jia's mother authorized, in order to confirm this diagnosis, but the prison authorities refused.
Hu Jia's family believes hat his condition may be more serious than the prison doctor has stated, and that he may have liver cancer. His wife, Zeng Jinyan, has documented his deteriorating health since his detention. Prison doctors detected a mass approximately 3cm in diameter in his abdomen. A previous prison hospital check-up found Hu Jia had gallstones, a protrusion in his liver and high blood pressure complications from chronic liver disease.
As they are concerned that he is not receiving adequate treatment in prison, Hu Jia's family is urgently requesting the prison grant him medical parole, as provided for in Chinese law. An earlier request for medical parole was rejected in 2009. Zeng Jinyan submitted another application for Hu Jia’s medical parole on 7 April 2010, which the authorities told her on 12 April they also rejected.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Hu Jia was detained on 27 December 2007 on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power" under Article 105 of the Chinese Criminal Law and was held at the Beijing Municipal Police Detention Center, in Chaoyang district. He was tried on 18 March and 3 April 2008 at the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People's Court and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years imprisonment for "inciting subversion" on 3 April 2008.
Prior to being imprisoned, Hu Jia had been diagnosed with hepatitis B, and had been taking medication to manage the disease. However, due to long term use, the medicine was no longer proving effective, and in January 2009 he stopped taking it altogether.
According to Chinese regulations concerning prisoners, Hu Jia qualifies for medical parole, as he has completed one-third of his prison sentence and the state of his health is of serious concern. However, requests from Hu Jia's family for him to be given a medical assessment and treatment outside the prison, and international calls for Hu Jia to be granted adequate health care were ignored by the prison authorities in 2008 and 2009.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:
* Expressing grave concern that Hu Jia is not receiving adequate medical care;
* Urging the authorities to release Hu Jia's medical reports and test results to his family;
* Urging the authorities to grant Hu Jia medical parole so he can be examined by an independent doctor and receive adequate medical treatment.
APPEALS TO:
Director of Beijing Municipal Prison Management Bureau
Zheng Zhenyuan Juzhang
No.4 Lirenjie
Xuanwu district
Beijingshi, 100054
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Email: bj@bjjgj.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Director
Minister of Justice of the People's Republic of China
WU Aiying Buzhang
Sifabu
10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie
Chaoyangqu
Beijingshi 100020
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Fax: 011 86 10 65292345
Email: pfmaster@legalinfo.gov.cn
Salutation: Dear Minister
COPIES TO:
Premier of the People's Republic of China
WEN Jiabao Guojia Zongli
The State Council General Office
2 Fuyoujie
Xichengqu
Beijingshi 100017
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Fax: 011 86 10 65961109
(c/o Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Ambassador Wen Zhong Zhou
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
3505 International Place NW
Washington DC 20008
Fax: 1 202 465-2190
Email: chinaembassy_us@fmprc.gov.cn
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Check with the AIUSA Urgent Action office if sending appeals after 24 May 2010.
----------------------------------
Tip of the Month:
Write as soon as you can. Try to write as close as possible
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To Canada:
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To Mexico:
$0.79 - Postcards
$0.79 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
To all other destination countries:
$0.98 - Postcards
$0.98 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement
that promotes and defends human rights.
This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
contact information and stop action date (if applicable).
Thank you for your help with this appeal.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566
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END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
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